Archives: News Stories
Professor of Business Lynn White, Ph.D., was honored recently with Trinity’s Professor of the Year Award. White joins previous recipients Dr. Robert Rice and Dr. Brad Breems.
Before starting at Trinity in 1989, White worked in financial consulting, realizing it was imperative to gain experience before pursuing her calling to teach, a call she discovered as a teaching assistant at the University of Illinois.
Over the past 25 years, White has seen her job in teaching accounting and business change as the world of business has evolved. And she continually works to keep the program current.
More recent changes to Trinity’s business program were sparked by the awarding of a NetVUE Program Development Grant in 2012. Faculty and staff from the business department, Cooper Career Center, and Trinity Business Network have been working to develop a model program to support students and serve alumni and business partners with regard to vocational formation.
Specifically, White and her Trinity colleagues have implemented new courses, such as Creativity in Business, Business Planning, and Negotiations; added more experiential learning through partnerships with businesses; and more deeply integrated Christian values into the curriculum.
“What we want business graduates to bring into their profession are vocational qualities and skills that are grown and nurtured through the course work,” said White.
The traits, which include self-awareness/empowerment, ingenuity/creativity, critical thinking/technical excellence, are also evident in White and her fellow business department colleagues who have not stopped at teaching only the theories of business but have created opportunities for students to live out what they are learning in the classroom
Business students have served as “consultants” for local businesses, interned in the community and in Chicago, been mentored by business men and women in various industries, and talked with alumni now working in myriad careers.
“We have been ‘wow-ed’ by the support of alumni and community members,” said White, referring to the more than 125 guest speakers, mentors, internship supervisors, and employers who were involved with students in the 2013-14 academic year alone.
Alumni, in particular, visit classes to share their experiences with current students. “The alumni give back,” said White. “They know their success is not based only on their own efforts but people in the community who provided internships.”
White said her vision, which is shared by her colleagues, is for the department to be further developed into a resource for the broader community. This partnership has the potential for creating even more opportunities for students through mentorships, internships, and careers while also serving businesses and organizations.
“It’s about having people in place,” White said. “People assembled here are creative, energetic, and they bring the experience from their professional backgrounds into the classroom.”
White said she loves both the continuity of her job and the variety it offers, because of the different students, alumni, and community members and because of changes in the business world.
That ever-evolving world tends to make time fly for the long-time Trinity professor. “It doesn’t seem like it has been that long,” said White, “but ‘it’ is always changing.”
Imagine heading to the local library, one shared by approximately 180,000 people, and finding only a closet-sized section of books. A couple of years ago, this used to be the situation in Huaycan, Peru. But thanks to Trinity alumna Lara DeVries’ dedication to education, this is no longer the case.
DeVries ’08 is the founder and executive director of the Light and Leadership Initiative (LLI), an organization she started the year after her graduation from Trinity. LLI provides free afterschool and weekend education programs to children and women in Huaycan, a community located outside of Lima.
The motivation to help the people of Peru that began with DeVries’ community development internship in Lima never waned and continues to grow as LLI recognizes and meets more challenges each year—a lack of library books being one.
After noticing that the reading levels of students in LLI’s after-school program were not as high as they could be, DeVries discovered a disturbing lack of books available to students, and LLI responded.
“In January 2012, we held our first ‘biblioteca,’ or library, session for several kids in of the areas we serve,” said DeVries. “The response was exciting. Kids were interested in exploring the world of reading.”
Since then, LLI has offered hundreds of library sessions and has expanded the program to four different areas.
The addition of library sessions is not the only expansion LLI has experienced since its founding five years ago. While the number of participants in the program has stayed consistent with around 140 children and women, the strength of those relationships has grown significantly.
“LLI has definitely been re-shaping its programs in the last few years to concentrate on the values we want to develop and the goals our participants want to achieve,” said DeVries. “We’ve really focused on nurturing those relationships and making them long-lasting within the community.”
The story of Eduardo illustrates the impact LLI has on students. Eduardo, who started in the program three years ago, participates in private English classes, art and chess classes, the reading program, and contests.
“He is such a great example of our kids and their thirst for more education,” said DeVries. “Most importantly, his family is highly involved in his success in school and with LLI. Thankfully, it’s not just Eduardo. Though he’s a great example, we have tons of kids who are excited about our programs and we are really starting to see the difference.”
One reason LLI has been able to succeed and help students like Eduardo is through the support of the Trinity community, in both donations and volunteerism.
“We’ve had several volunteers from Trinity come through our doors in the past five years, including an Interim group and students on their spring break. Plus, we’ll be welcoming a Trinity alumna, Jess Wiltjer, this August,” said DeVries.
For their fifth anniversary, LLI will be holding a picnic fundraiser on June 28 to celebrate the success of over 8,500 classes offered. DeVries and LLI thank the Trinity community for all the support they continue to give.
“It’s great to see so many familiar faces at our fundraisers, and many of them are from the Trinity community,” said DeVries. That’s really incredible when I think about it—to think about all the people, specifically professors and friends made in college, who have contributed to LLI’s success. For that, I am always grateful.”
Trinity recently announced the 2014 Catherine Yonker Memorial Award recipients:
Rochelle Burks ’14 of Downers Grove, Illinois,
a May graduate of the social work department
Marisa Lopez ’16 of Burbank, Illinois,
a communication arts major
Staff member Tippi Price, access librarian
The award celebrates men and women whose “ideas and actions promote understanding and appreciation of cultural, ethnic, and racial issues on Trinity’s campus,” according to the Ethnic Diversity Committee.
Members of the Trinity community nominate candidates, including students, faculty, staff, and administrators early in the spring semester. A subcommittee then reviews each nominee and selects recipients by the end of the school year. Typically, the award is granted to one individual, unless a case equal contribution is presented.
Burks was recognized for her membership in a committee that sought to help Trinity even more fully “embrace and exalt” minority students. “Through this project I learned what it takes to inspire a shared vision and promote change,” Burks said.
Ashley Roberts ’15 of Tracy, California; Molly Gobeli ’15 of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Evan Geels ’16 of Sheldon, Iowa, were also members of the committee.
Many wonderful events took place at Trinity this spring with the end of the academic providing an abundance of educational and social offerings.
Annual events such as Commencement and Love Palos were just two of the mainstays among a variety of fun activities, academic celebrations, and athletic competitions students enjoyed.
We offer this photogallery recap as a way to recall the many blessings the Trinity community experienced in April and May!
Graduating seniors in Trinity’s Honors Program were recently recognized at the annual pinning ceremony, led by program director and professor of communication arts Dr. Craig Mattson.
The Honors Program challenges and supports academically gifted students through collaborative research with publishing scholars in the field and participation in co-curricular activities.
During the ceremony, seniors Kathryn Andringa of Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Joshua DeJong of Plainfield, Illinois; Lette Huisman of Hudsonville, Michigan; Jacob Maatman of Lynwood, Illinois; and Brittany Miedema of Zeeland, Michigan, were honored by fellow students and professors, who offered personal tributes and words of congratulations and blessing.
Participating in the May 17, 2014, Commencement at Trinity Christian College were 187 traditional students and 45 Adult Studies students. The keynote speaker for both the traditional and the Adult Studies ceremonies was Dr. Dave Larsen ’67, director, Bright Promise Fund for Urban Christian Education in Chicago.
In Larsen’s address, “Lifelong Holy Curiosity,” the Trinity alumnus and former dean of students, shared a conversation he had with a Trinity student years before.
The student told Larsen: “In high school we’d be sitting around the supper table and my parents would always ask me and my sister what we did that day… What I really wanted them to ask me was ‘How did you be today?’ I had so much more going on inside me that I needed to talk about.”
“There is a difference between doing and being,” Larsen said. “Trinity Christian College dedicates itself to helping students know how to be before knowing what to do. That’s a tricky formula, I know, but it means that when you know how to be you’ll have a better chance at knowing what needs to be done.
Larsen challenged graduates to consider a way of being: Be curious.
“The best education here at Trinity cultivates a holy curiosity about the things that really matter: what really matters to God, what really makes a difference in loving your neighbor,” he said.
During the ceremony, Dr. Kenneth Austin, professor of music, and Dr. Dick Cole, professor of psychology, and were both honored with emeritus status. Austin has served the College since 1991 and Cole since 1979.
This year’s Professor of the Year award was presented to Dr. Lynn White, professor of business. The award recognizes the achievements of a distinguished professor who has shown excellence in teaching or scholarship. The faculty development committee chooses from nominations submitted by students, faculty, and staff.
Commencement program—Traditional
Commencement guests were greeted by Martin Ozinga III, chair of Trinity’s Board of Trustees. Dr. Barbara Timmermans, professor of nursing, and mother of Jessica Timmermans ’14 of Palos Heights, Illinois, gave the invocation. The Commencement litany was delivered by Student Association President Nathan Tameling ’14 of Burr Ridge, Illinois.
All the graduates were welcomed to their new alumni status by Shannon Schans ’00, alumni board president. An inspiring message and the benediction was offered by Roscoe C. Burks, father of Rochelle Burks ’14 of Downers Grove, Illinois.
Processing this year were 47 alumni from Trinity’s Class of 1964.
Members of the Trinity Honors Ensemble raised their beautiful voices in the Song of Response and the Song of Praise.
Commencement program—Adult Studies
Martin Ozinga III, chair of Trinity’s Board of Trustees, greeted Commencement guests, and Dr. Lori Scrementi, dean for adult studies and graduate programs, gave the invocation. The Commencement litany was delivered by Barry Clarke ’14 of Tinley Park, Illinois.
The graduates were welcomed to their new alumni status by Jason Burxvoort ’99, alumni board vice president. The closing prayer was offered by Chaplain Willis Van Groningen, Ph.D.
The lovely and moving Song of Response was sung by Sandy Aggen ’10, student relations coordinator in Adult Studies.
About Dr. Dave Larsen ’67
Dr. Dave Larsen ’67 is deeply grateful for the blessing of Christian education in his life and the lives of his wife, children, and grandchildren. He and his wife Cathy have three grown children: Josh, a 1996 graduate of Trinity; Anne (Vander Weele); and Cate (Jamison).
Larsen began his professional life in youth ministry. He then served Trinity Christian College as vice president for student development for nearly 20 years (1976-96), having also served the college as dean of students, chaplain, and a drama instructor. He also dedicated 12 years to Timothy Christian Schools as development director.
Since 2010, Larsen has served as the director of the Bright Promise Fund for Urban Christian Education in Chicago. Bright Promise strengthens a dozen urban schools by generating new sources of revenue and through the Center for Urban Christian Education, recently established in collaboration with Trinity Christian College.
Larsen graduated from Trinity Christian College in 1967 when it was still a two-year college. He earned his B.A. in English from Calvin College; his M.A. in religious education from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; and his Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy studies at Loyola University of Chicago.
Larsen says that in the mid-90s he discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down.
Trinity Commencement 2014: Holy Curiosity for Life
By Dr. Dave Larsen ’67
It’s always good to come home. Dr. Timmermans, thank you for the invitation. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be with the Trinity community on this grand occasion. And may I say as a Trinity alumnus, a Palos Heights resident, and a friend, that your servant leadership on this campus and in this community has made a world of difference! Thank you for your work and wisdom. We will miss you around here.
I’ve noticed that a significant number of graduates this morning are also children of Trinity graduates. I remember many from my days as Dean of Students here. Graduates, if your parents attended Trinity and if you’d like to know what they were really like as students, I’m holding a special information session following the ceremony in the Van Namen Recital Hall.
I’ll never forget the conversation I had with a student here at Trinity in my office deep in the basement of what was then the old Administration building. He was describing life at home with the family he loved. But he made this observation: “In high school we’d be sitting around the supper table and my parents would always ask me and my sister what we did that day. That was usually easy to answer, but boring. What I really wanted them to ask me was “How did you be today?” “How did you be today?” I had so much more going on inside me that I needed to talk about. But we never got around to it.”
There is a difference between doing and being. Trinity Christian College dedicates itself to helping students know how to be before knowing what to do. That’s a tricky formula, I know, but it means that when you know how to be you’ll have a better chance at knowing what needs to be done.
Here’s a way of being that I want to consider with you for a few moments: Be curious. Be curious.
And what I’d like to narrow the focus to even more this morning is paying attention to something very specific: cultivating a holy curiosity so that the impact of this Trinity education lingers for years to come.
I’m not speaking about the easy and common curiosity satisfied by Siri or a Google search. The best education here at Trinity cultivates a holy curiosity about the things that really matter: what really matters to God, what really makes a difference in loving your neighbor.
Trinity faculty and student development staff routinely raised questions in your years here such as:
• Where did I come from?
• Where am I headed?
• What does my life matter to those around me?
• For whom do I live?
• For what would I die?
In the classroom, in the residence halls, in worship, in service to the communities that surround Trinity and around the world, they’ve prompted you to be curious about those things of ultimate concern.
Now we all know about and experience curiosity as a starting point for learning. Good teachers and student development staff see this innate instinct and try to capture it and capitalize on it and nurture it. Think of the curiosity that brought about inventions, discoveries, explorations, or a trip to an empty tomb on Easter morning. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Magellan, Marie Curie, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James: all motivated by a curiosity that set them apart.
It’s the sort of instinct that makes you wonder about where “Beyond” is in Bed, Bath and Beyond. Innate, inborn curiosity.
My wife and I live about four blocks west of here. We share the property with a thundering herd of a thousand squirrels that routinely dig up our every attempt at gardening. So early on I bought a “tender trap” and captured at least 63 of them one summer. I kept track with marks on a garage cabinet door, like notches on a gunslinger’s belt. I’d take them in the trap to the Trinity nature trail and release them. I knew there were a lot of nuts on Trinity’s campus.
Toward the end of this summer adventure one of our daughters asked—because of curiosity—if perhaps I was capturing the same squirrels over and over again. Hadn’t occurred to me, I admit. She was more curious than I at this point. So I did some research and found out that squirrels can find their way back to their territory from ten miles away. From that point on I’d spray-paint their tails a bright orange, bring them to Trinity, and wait for them to come back. They did. So then I brought them to the Lake Katherine Nature Center. Not a greater distance away, but they would have to cross Rt. 83 and Harlem to get back to our yard. One day I saw a squirrel climbing the stoplight to push the pedestrian crossing button.
Curiosity is the mother of the teachable moment. It is the threshold to creativity and critical thinking, and often triggers innovation and invention. Curiosity leads to the best possible daydreaming.
Plain old commonplace curiosity is one thing. It happens quite naturally, and we can nurture it carefully or kill it thoughtlessly. But, in the right hands, common curiosity can lead to a holy curiosity about the things that matter. Trinity is a place of holy curiosity.
• Where did I come from?
• Where am I headed?
• What does my life matter to those around me?
• For whom do I live?
• For what would I die?
One of my vivid memories from elementary school days at Englewood Christian School in Chicago is that of a song: “Yield Not to Temptation.” It had to be the all-time favorite song of one of my teachers. One of its verses went something like this: (If you remember it, sing it with me)
“Yield not to temptation
For yielding is sin
Each victory will help you
Some other to win
Fight manfully onward
Dark passions subdue
Look ever to Jesus
He will carry you through.”
The song served as a theme song for our class, and it raised several questions in my young mind. The first was, “What is a dark passion?” The second was, “And where could I get one?” Life was routine and dull, it seemed, and dark passions sounded fairly exotic. But I didn’t dare ask my teacher about it. I figured that she must have had a few dark passions herself, considering how often she wanted to sing the song.
I also wondered how all the girls in my class could fight manfully onward, or whether it was only boys who were the yielding sort, but it didn’t seem to bother our female teacher. What I really wondered was how looking to Jesus would carry me through this thing called temptation. It never seemed to make such sense.
This “looking to Jesus” never made a great deal of sense until I discovered some things about Jesus and temptation from the book of Hebrews, and discovered from experience how strong temptations can be in life, how powerful dark passions can be, how easy it is to live a life out of touch with the Kingdom. But the holy curiosity began as a kid in elementary school. And it was nurtured by those who taught me and showed an interest in me right here as a Trinity student.
You see, a holy curiosity gives us a filter by which to assess a celebrity-laden and phony reality show absorbed culture. Although an occasional viewing of hoarders or duck dynasties may lead to deeper questions—or should—cultivating a holy curiosity will get you there more quickly and deeply. These holy curiosity filters are important and can last a lifetime.
Trinity’s calling is to equip students now with the holy curiosity about what matters to God: loving him and our neighbors.
And in a sense that’s the informal contract Trinity made with you when you enrolled. You pay attention to them, they pay attention to you. For Christian colleges, faculty, and student development staff, developing a holy curiosity moves us beyond this informal contract into the world of independent, life-long learning that comes from learning to ask the right questions, learning to put life around us to the test, learning that doubt is not the same as unbelief, and gives us the freedom to converse with God in alarming and engaging ways. Cultivating a holy curiosity is internalizing the concept of paying attention to what matters and why.
Where might we focus the cultivation of a holy curiosity these days? Let me quickly suggest three areas.
We need to cultivate a holy curiosity about injustice in our world, what God is doing about it, and how we can join God’s cause in setting things right.
This calls for Trinity graduates to live with empathy, a sanctified outrage at injustice, and search for heroes of the faith and heroes in our world who work for God’s justice to prevail.
We need to cultivate a holy curiosity, the supreme curiosity, about who Jesus is and what it means to follow him.
The account in Luke of the overflowing fish catch and the call to become fishers of men and women is itself a curious story.
This factual fish tale is a visual parable. Taking men and women alive, which is really the meaning of what Jesus said to these disciples on their first day of work together, has more the sense of “bring them all the good news you see I bring.” In other words, tell them and show them about the Kingdom as you follow me. Stick with me and you’ll see men and women caught up in the life of the Kingdom, caught up to overflowing, caught up in the abundant life I alone bring.
It’s that kind of vision and call which enabled the fisher disciples to leave everything on the spot and follow Jesus. We need to cultivate a holy curiosity about all that Jesus is and does, and an ongoing sense of what it means to follow him, or we miss the heart of a Trinity Christian College education and the reason it exists.
Finally, we also need to cultivate a holy curiosity about why Christians can live in hope and not in fear in a changing world.
Who among us doesn’t wonder if God’s really in control when we look around us, or maybe even within us? We wonder, don’t we, about where all this is headed? It may be even more frightening to you as graduates. Yet Trinity has encouraged a holy curiosity about what God is actually doing in the world and how we can catch up and join the activity.
Andy Crouch has observed that between 1455 and 1899 no book was published with the phrase “Change the World” in the title. But between 2000 and 2010 there were 220 books published with the phrase in the title. We either think things need changing or think we’re the ones to do it, or both. But as Crouch points out, we are not the people to change the world. It’s hard enough for us to see change in ourselves, right? The way to change the world is to watch what God is doing and get in step. The way Trinity gave you hope is to cultivate a holy curiosity about God’s work and then encourage and enable you to get in step. Watching God at work and pitching in with your gifts is a wonderful way to kindle hope in a world that needs it.
Are you hopeful? Christian colleges should radiate hope. When these folks dressed in academic regalia, when this Trinity President and administrators and student development staff see students grow in their academic life, in their life of faith and discipleship, in their confidence, and into a promising future, they are hopeful. When we see image-bearers of God flourish into all that they are meant to be, how can you not be hopeful?
Peter Gomes, the famous preacher to Harvard University, said this about hope: “Hope thus always points away from the one who claims it to the one who is its source . . . Hope doesn’t get us out, but it gets us through . . . It connects the present to the future.” Those who hope in God remain curious about where and when we will next see him at work.
So graduates, we are hopeful about you, and eager to see God at work through you.
Some time ago I came across a commentary on a quote of Henry James describing someone. The quote was this, and it reminded me of my wife, someone who’s taught me a great deal about a holy curiosity: “a person upon whom nothing is lost.” And this was the commentary: “I’ve loved that phrase. It reminds me of a way of living to be aspired to: to be a person for whom every encounter is food for thought, reflection, prayer, or perhaps lively resistance, who notices word choices and recognizes need and gets the joke and pauses over what might easily be passed by.”
I am confident that you have been blessed by people like this here at Trinity. And for each one, different from each other in many ways, there was a common trait. They know their Lord and Savior well enough to imitate him, lived their faith deeply enough to struggle with it in doubt and in faith, and prompted in you and your classmates a holy curiosity to live and work for what matters in life, seeking first the Kingdom.
There’s time yet today to thank someone who cultivated this holy curiosity in you. A residence director. An administrator. The President. The chaplain. That special professor. Your parents. A classmate or roommate. Don’t let this day go by without thanking them for this gift. And let’s keep the conversation going: #holycuriosity.
Graduates, may you always live a life of holy curiosity in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Blessed by the Trinity. Blessed by this Trinity. Thank you.
Trinity Commencement 2014: Holy Curiosity for Life
By Dr. Dave Larsen ’67
It’s always good to come home. Dr. Timmermans, thank you for the invitation. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be with the Trinity community on this grand occasion. And may I say as a Trinity alumnus, a Palos Heights resident, and a friend, that your servant leadership on this campus and in this community has made a world of difference! Thank you for your work and wisdom. We will miss you around here.
I’ve noticed that a significant number of graduates this morning are also children of Trinity graduates. I remember many from my days as Dean of Students here. Graduates, if your parents attended Trinity and if you’d like to know what they were really like as students, I’m holding a special information session following the ceremony in the Van Namen Recital Hall.
I’ll never forget the conversation I had with a student here at Trinity in my office deep in the basement of what was then the old Administration building. He was describing life at home with the family he loved. But he made this observation: “In high school we’d be sitting around the supper table and my parents would always ask me and my sister what we did that day. That was usually easy to answer, but boring. What I really wanted them to ask me was “How did you be today?” “How did you be today?” I had so much more going on inside me that I needed to talk about. But we never got around to it.”
There is a difference between doing and being. Trinity Christian College dedicates itself to helping students know how to be before knowing what to do. That’s a tricky formula, I know, but it means that when you know how to be you’ll have a better chance at knowing what needs to be done.
Here’s a way of being that I want to consider with you for a few moments: Be curious. Be curious.
And what I’d like to narrow the focus to even more this morning is paying attention to something very specific: cultivating a holy curiosity so that the impact of this Trinity education lingers for years to come.
I’m not speaking about the easy and common curiosity satisfied by Siri or a Google search. The best education here at Trinity cultivates a holy curiosity about the things that really matter: what really matters to God, what really makes a difference in loving your neighbor.
Trinity faculty and student development staff routinely raised questions in your years here such as:
· Where did I come from?
· Where am I headed?
· What does my life matter to those around me?
· For whom do I live?
· For what would I die?
In the classroom, in the residence halls, in worship, in service to the communities that surround Trinity and around the world, they’ve prompted you to be curious about those things of ultimate concern.
Now we all know about and experience curiosity as a starting point for learning. Good teachers and student development staff see this innate instinct and try to capture it and capitalize on it and nurture it. Think of the curiosity that brought about inventions, discoveries, explorations, or a trip to an empty tomb on Easter morning. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Magellan, Marie Curie, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James: all motivated by a curiosity that set them apart.
It’s the sort of instinct that makes you wonder about where “Beyond” is in Bed, Bath and Beyond. Innate, inborn curiosity.
My wife and I live about four blocks west of here. We share the property with a thundering herd of a thousand squirrels that routinely dig up our every attempt at gardening. So early on I bought a “tender trap” and captured at least 63 of them one summer. I kept track with marks on a garage cabinet door, like notches on a gunslinger’s belt. I’d take them in the trap to the Trinity nature trail and release them. I knew there were a lot of nuts on Trinity’s campus.
Toward the end of this summer adventure one of our daughters asked—because of curiosity—if perhaps I was capturing the same squirrels over and over again. Hadn’t occurred to me, I admit. She was more curious than I at this point. So I did some research and found out that squirrels can find their way back to their territory from ten miles away. From that point on I’d spray-paint their tails a bright orange, bring them to Trinity, and wait for them to come back. They did. So then I brought them to the Lake Katherine Nature Center. Not a greater distance away, but they would have to cross Rt. 83 and Harlem to get back to our yard. One day I saw a squirrel climbing the stoplight to push the pedestrian crossing button.
Curiosity is the mother of the teachable moment. It is the threshold to creativity and critical thinking, and often triggers innovation and invention. Curiosity leads to the best possible daydreaming.
Plain old commonplace curiosity is one thing. It happens quite naturally, and we can nurture it carefully or kill it thoughtlessly. But, in the right hands, common curiosity can lead to a holy curiosity about the things that matter. Trinity is a place of holy curiosity.
· Where did I come from?
· Where am I headed?
· What does my life matter to those around me?
· For whom do I live?
· For what would I die?
One of my vivid memories from elementary school days at Englewood Christian School in Chicago is that of a song: “Yield Not to Temptation.” It had to be the all-time favorite song of one of my teachers. One of its verses went something like this: (If you remember it, sing it with me)
“Yield not to temptation
For yielding is sin
Each victory will help you
Some other to win
Fight manfully onward
Dark passions subdue
Look ever to Jesus
He will carry you through.”
The song served as a theme song for our class, and it raised several questions in my young mind. The first was, “What is a dark passion?” The second was, “And where could I get one?” Life was routine and dull, it seemed, and dark passions sounded fairly exotic. But I didn’t dare ask my teacher about it. I figured that she must have had a few dark passions herself, considering how often she wanted to sing the song.
I also wondered how all the girls in my class could fight manfully onward, or whether it was only boys who were the yielding sort, but it didn’t seem to bother our female teacher. What I really wondered was how looking to Jesus would carry me through this thing called temptation. It never seemed to make such sense.
This “looking to Jesus” never made a great deal of sense until I discovered some things about Jesus and temptation from the book of Hebrews, and discovered from experience how strong temptations can be in life, how powerful dark passions can be, how easy it is to live a life out of touch with the Kingdom. But the holy curiosity began as a kid in elementary school. And it was nurtured by those who taught me and showed an interest in me right here as a Trinity student.
You see, a holy curiosity gives us a filter by which to assess a celebrity-laden and phony reality show absorbed culture. Although an occasional viewing of hoarders or duck dynasties may lead to deeper questions—or should—cultivating a holy curiosity will get you there more quickly and deeply. These holy curiosity filters are important and can last a lifetime.
Trinity’s calling is to equip students now with the holy curiosity about what matters to God: loving him and our neighbors.
And in a sense that’s the informal contract Trinity made with you when you enrolled. You pay attention to them, they pay attention to you. For Christian colleges, faculty, and student development staff, developing a holy curiosity moves us beyond this informal contract into the world of independent, life-long learning that comes from learning to ask the right questions, learning to put life around us to the test, learning that doubt is not the same as unbelief, and gives us the freedom to converse with God in alarming and engaging ways. Cultivating a holy curiosity is internalizing the concept of paying attention to what matters and why.
Where might we focus the cultivation of a holy curiosity these days? Let me quickly suggest three areas.
We need to cultivate a holy curiosity about injustice in our world, what God is doing about it, and how we can join God’s cause in setting things right.
This calls for Trinity graduates to live with empathy, a sanctified outrage at injustice, and search for heroes of the faith and heroes in our world who work for God’s justice to prevail.
We need to cultivate a holy curiosity, the supreme curiosity, about who Jesus is and what it means to follow him.
The account in Luke of the overflowing fish catch and the call to become fishers of men and women is itself a curious story.
This factual fish tale is a visual parable. Taking men and women alive, which is really the meaning of what Jesus said to these disciples on their first day of work together, has more the sense of “bring them all the good news you see I bring.” In other words, tell them and show them about the Kingdom as you follow me. Stick with me and you’ll see men and women caught up in the life of the Kingdom, caught up to overflowing, caught up in the abundant life I alone bring.
It’s that kind of vision and call which enabled the fisher disciples to leave everything on the spot and follow Jesus. We need to cultivate a holy curiosity about all that Jesus is and does, and an ongoing sense of what it means to follow him, or we miss the heart of a Trinity Christian College education and the reason it exists.
Finally, we also need to cultivate a holy curiosity about why Christians can live in hope and not in fear in a changing world.
Who among us doesn’t wonder if God’s really in control when we look around us, or maybe even within us? We wonder, don’t we, about where all this is headed? It may be even more frightening to you as graduates. Yet Trinity has encouraged a holy curiosity about what God is actually doing in the world and how we can catch up and join the activity.
Andy Crouch has observed that between 1455 and 1899 no book was published with the phrase “Change the World” in the title. But between 2000 and 2010 there were 220 books published with the phrase in the title. We either think things need changing or think we’re the ones to do it, or both. But as Crouch points out, we are not the people to change the world. It’s hard enough for us to see change in ourselves, right? The way to change the world is to watch what God is doing and get in step. The way Trinity gave you hope is to cultivate a holy curiosity about God’s work and then encourage and enable you to get in step. Watching God at work and pitching in with your gifts is a wonderful way to kindle hope in a world that needs it.
Are you hopeful? Christian colleges should radiate hope. When these folks dressed in academic regalia, when this Trinity President and administrators and student development staff see students grow in their academic life, in their life of faith and discipleship, in their confidence, and into a promising future, they are hopeful. When we see image-bearers of God flourish into all that they are meant to be, how can you not be hopeful?
Peter Gomes, the famous preacher to Harvard University, said this about hope: “Hope thus always points away from the one who claims it to the one who is its source . . . Hope doesn’t get us out, but it gets us through . . . It connects the present to the future.” Those who hope in God remain curious about where and when we will next see him at work.
So graduates, we are hopeful about you, and eager to see God at work through you.
Some time ago I came across a commentary on a quote of Henry James describing someone. The quote was this, and it reminded me of my wife, someone who’s taught me a great deal about a holy curiosity: “a person upon whom nothing is lost.” And this was the commentary: “I’ve loved that phrase. It reminds me of a way of living to be aspired to: to be a person for whom every encounter is food for thought, reflection, prayer, or perhaps lively resistance, who notices word choices and recognizes need and gets the joke and pauses over what might easily be passed by.”
I am confident that you have been blessed by people like this here at Trinity. And for each one, different from each other in many ways, there was a common trait. They know their Lord and Savior well enough to imitate him, lived their faith deeply enough to struggle with it in doubt and in faith, and prompted in you and your classmates a holy curiosity to live and work for what matters in life, seeking first the Kingdom.
There’s time yet today to thank someone who cultivated this holy curiosity in you. A residence director. An administrator. The President. The chaplain. That special professor. Your parents. A classmate or roommate. Don’t let this day go by without thanking them for this gift. And let’s keep the conversation going: #holycuriosity.
Graduates, may you always live a life of holy curiosity in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Blessed by the Trinity. Blessed by this Trinity. Thank you.
By President Steve Timmermans, Ph.D.
UPDATE: Congratulations to Dr. Steve Timmermans, who was officially appointed as executive director of the Christian Reformed Church, according to an announcement posted on the crna.org website on June 16.
“We praise God for His leading and for Steve’s 11 years of leadership at Trinity,” said Interim President Liz Rudenga.
As the nominee for the Christian Reformed Church’s executive director position, my time at Trinity Christian College is drawing to a close.
The farewells have been many, and all bittersweet. These 11 years have been years of great blessings, even during times of economic downturn. Students are growing by means of liberal arts preparation, major areas of study, and spiritual development—all in the context of the Chicago metropolitan area.
Our professors are teaching with excellence and participating in scholarly exchanges across North America and beyond.
Staff members are serving the campus, and by means of our service release time policy, serving well beyond the campus.
Indeed, it’s difficult to leave Trinity, for I’m committed to our mission, and the College is flourishing. Yet, a new call is coming, and I’m eager to take up new challenges and meet new opportunities. Trinity will continue with excellent leadership, as Provost Liz Rudenga is stepping in as interim president.
So allow me to close with concluding words from Ephesians 3.
I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.
Amen.
Read the final Troll Tracking blog post.
Collaborative research with professors benefits students by deepening their understanding of their area of study. Trinity’s Maurice Vander Velde Junior Scholarship supports outstanding junior or senior students in the pursuit of collaborative research in their chosen disciplines.
In May, five students were awarded the scholarship, which will enable each student to produce a scholarly project for publication or presentation and work alongside a professor as a colleague.
Congratulations to the 2014-15 Junior Scholars:
- Susannah Strange’16 – with Dr. Aron Reppman ’92, professor of Philosophy – Relationality and Reason in Reformed Philosophy
- Cassandra Nelson ’14 – with Dr. Mark Peters, professor of music – Chanting the Church Year: Theology and Practice
- Joe Andringa ’15 – with Dr. Clay Carlson, assistant professor of biology -The Effects of Vitamin D on Breast Cancer Cells
- Anna Bos ’15 and Jonathan Koonce ’15 – with Dr. Michael Bosscher, assistant professor of chemistry – Enhancing Lanthanide Binding Affinity and LRET of Proteins
- Patrick Page ’14 – with Dr. Bob Boomsma, professor of biology – The Effects of Oxygen Levels, Serum Concentration, and Heat Inactivation on mRNA Expression of Paracrine Factors in Mesenchymal Stem Cells
“As a community committed to scholarship—not just as a group of autonomous scholars—the Vander Velde Junior Scholars award helps make possible collaborative research between faculty and students that strengthens and extends our communal concentration on God’s word and God’s world,” said Dr. Craig Mattson, director of the Honors Program.
One of the most popular SALT classes is Tom Panush’s “Behind the Headlines,” which regularly welcomes interesting guests and invites spirited discussion.
SALT offers various classes and day trips for community members and recently “Behind the Headlines” invited three special guests: Evelyn Sanguinetti, republican candidate for lieutenant governor; Paul Vallas, democratic candidate for lieutenant governor; and Tim McCarthy, Orland Park chief of police and former member of the Secret Service, who was shot during the Reagan assassination attempt.
Wheaton Chamber of Commerce member and attorney Sanguinetti started her visit with sharing a little of her family’s “very American story.”
The daughter of an Ecuadorian immigrant and Cuban refugee, Sanguinetti grew up in the ghettos of Miami and worked her way up in life with help from her music education. After graduation from the John Marshall School of Law, she served as assistant attorney general in the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. Following a question and answer period, Sanguinetti took time to meet with class attendees.
Vallas spoke to a group of community members and some faculty during the class on May 14.
Referring to himself as a “journeyman” in public service, Vallas described his work with school systems in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, and in Haiti, where he has been traveling since a month after the earthquake in 2010. He briefly shared Governor Quinn’s plans for improving Illinois and said, “We are in a historic position to bring long-term financial stability to the state while making an unprecedented investment in our schools.”
At SALT’s “Behind the Headlines” class on April 30, Chief Mc Carthy shared fascinating stories about the day President Ronald Reagan was shot and stories from his 20+ years of serving the Village of Orland Park, Illinois.
Poetry, writing, and art were highlighted this month at two events hosted by the English department.
Openings
The publication of the sixth edition of Openings, Trinity’s visual and literary arts magazine, was celebrated at a reception on May 13.
Dr. Aron Reppman ’92, professor of philosophy, read his poem “Untitled.”
Esther Sullivan ’16 of Steger, Illinois, read her poem, “Silence”; and Hannah Dykstra ’16 of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, explained the inspiration for her comic “Misadventures of an Absentminded Artist.”
Serving as editors for this year’s issue were Sara Henreckson ’16 of Hillpoint, Wisconsin, and Haley Zandstra ’14 of Hudsonville, Michigan. Dr. Bill Boerman-Cornell, associate professor of education, served as advisor.
Poetry Readings
In April, students marked National Poem-in-your-Pocket Day with a reading in the Fireside Room. Those participating could share their own poetry or those written by favorite poets.
Sara Henreckson ’16 of Hillpoint, Wisconsin, wrote an essay titled “The Concreteness of Inconcreteness: A Gathering for the Reading of Poetry,” about the event. In it she reflected on the emotions connected with publicly sharing poetry and the ways in which poetry is read.
“It is impossible not to contrast the ways people read poetry. It is impossible also to keep from admiring the versatility that emerges in our gathering. Some read poetry like a storm—their voices beginning small and smooth, and then rising up like massive twisters, with loud cracks, and settling, eventually, back to silence. Others read poetry more subtly, their voices in general staying on an even plane, with more of a difference in spacing and speed rather than volume. You have to be careful about the kind of poetry you read at something like this, and careful about how you read it—after all, it is a small representation of yourself.”
Learn more about the English major at Trinity Christian College.